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Bone Mineral Density in Population Long-Term Exposed to Rare Earth Elements from a Mining Area of China

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Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effects of individuals’ exposure to rare earth elements (REEs) on bone metabolism. Adopting the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, we measured REEs and eight other elements (Ca, Fe, Cu, Na, K, Zn, Mg, and P) in the hair of 53 miners exposed to REEs from Baiyunebo and 57 healthy farmers as the control group. Furthermore, bone mineral density (BMD) in both groups was assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Analysis of variance showed that the concentrations of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Tb, Ho, Tm, and Yb in male hair of exposed group were significantly higher compared with the control group, whereas the concentrations of Ca and Fe in exposed group were significantly lower; the results of female hair, except for Ce, Tb, Ho, Tm, and Yb, were consistent with male hair. Student’s t test showed that the BMD of exposed males at lumbar vertebrae, femoral neck, greater trochanter, and intertrochanter was significantly lower than that of controls, and exposed females reported lower BMD values at lumbar vertebrae and femoral neck. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that concentrations of differential REEs were inversely related to BMD in males, and concentrations of Ca and Fe were positively related to BMD both in males and females. Our study suggests that long-term environmental and occupational exposure leads to REE accumulation, and a low level of iron and calcium due to the competitive binding of REEs, which together induce bone metabolism disorders, and further reduce BMD.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the study participants and Baiyunebo mining area for their contributions to this study.

Contributions

Liu HM: design and implementation of the study, research, and writing of the manuscript. Liu HY: design and implementation of the study, data analysis. Yang ZH and Wang KZ: supervision and review of the manuscript. All of the authors have read the manuscript and have agreed to submit it, in its current form, for consideration for publication.

Funding

The study was supported by Inner Mongolia Natural Science Foundation (No. 2018MS08146) and Baotou Medical College Science Foundation (No. BYJJ-YF 201730).

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  1. Heming Liu and Haiyan Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedics, The 1st Affiliated Hospital of Baotou Medical College, Baotou, Inner Mongolia Province, China

    Heming Liu & Zenghua Yang

  2. Department of Intervention Therapy, The 1st Affiliated Hospital of Baotou Medical College, Baotou, Inner Mongolia Province, China

    Haiyan Liu

  3. Department of Orthopaedics, The 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shannxi Province, China

    Kunzheng Wang

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  1. Heming Liu
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Correspondence to Heming Liu.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research ethics committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Bioethics Committee of Baotou Medical College (No. BY17-86).

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Liu, H., Liu, H., Yang, Z. et al. Bone Mineral Density in Population Long-Term Exposed to Rare Earth Elements from a Mining Area of China. Biol Trace Elem Res 199, 453–464 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-020-02165-0

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